California AG Kamala Harris Files Brief Against Standing Of Prop 8 Backers

In another move in the seemingly unending Prop 8 battle, California Attorney General Kamala Harris has filed a brief declaring that private citizens do not have standing to defend the statute in court.

In it, she argued that only public officials exercising the executive power of government have authority to represent the state when laws passed by voters or the Legislature are challenged. “California law affords an initiative’s proponents no right to defend the validity of a successful initiative measure based only on their role in launching an initiative process,” Harris wrote. [snip]

Lawyers for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that qualified the gay marriage measure for the ballot and campaigned for its passage have argued that initiative proponents need to be allowed to advocate for laws in court to prevent elected officials from effectively vetoing measures by not defending them in court. Harris contended in her brief that rather than empowering citizens, granting the sponsors of initiatives the ability to overrule the governor and attorney general’s judgment “would rob the electors of power by taking the executive power from elected officials and placing it instead in the hands of a few highly motivated but politically unaccountable individuals.”

The state Supreme Court is expected to hold a hearing on Prop 8 "sometime before the end of the year."

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New York governor promises ‘urgency’ on gay marriage

Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, says he’s optimistic that gay marriage will soon be legal in the state.

He said yesterday: “I know it’s failed before, but I think this is a different day. I’ll bring more urgency in the next few weeks.“

Thirty-two votes are needed for a bill to pass the Senate in the next six weeks. Mr Cuomo said he was confident that the votes would be found.

Last month, he told gay rights campaigners he will devote his “full attention” to marriage equality.

Speaking to campaigners in a closed meeting, he reportedly said: “For me, this is personal.”

Catholic leaders oppose the latest push but 700 Protestant and Jewish clergy members gave their support to the move this week.

Five states – Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington DC – currently allow gay couples to marry.

California’s ban is under review, while a large rally for gay marriage was held this week in Rhode Island.

In New York, a gay marriage bill suffered a surprise defeat in 2009 after support levels were overestimated.

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Shrien Dewani ‘told gay escort he wanted a way out of marriage’

Shrien Dewani allegedly told a gay escort that he wanted a “way out” of his marriage months before his wife was murdered on honeymoon.

Anni Dewani, 29, was shot dead in Cape Town, South Africa, in November and local police believe her husband arranged for her to be killed by hitmen.

Mr Dewani, a millionaire businessman, is wanted by South African police. Yesterday, an extradition hearing heard that he had told a witness that he “needed to find a way out” of the marriage, Press Association reports.

Reports named the witness as as male escort Leopold Leisser, 39, who is German. Mr Leisser has previously claimed that the British businessman had paid him thousands of pounds for sex on three occasions.

Representing the South African authorities who are seeking Mr Dewani’s extradition, Hugo Keith QC, said: “Dewani told [the witness] in April 2010 how he was engaged and had to get married.

“He said although she was a nice, lovely girl who he liked, he could not break out of the engagement because he would be disowned by his family. He went on to say to the witness he needed to find a way out of it.”

Yesterday’s hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court was also told that the gay rumours surrounding Mr Dewani would place him in danger of sexual assault and attack in a South African prison.

Sasha Gear, from Johannesburg’s Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said that the suspect’s youth and criminal inexperience would result in other inmates attacking him.

She added: “The connections that have been made with homosexuality put him at additional risk. Inmates perceived to be gay are very vulnerable in prison and allegations of homosexuality or association of him with homosexuality put him at risk.”

Mrs Dewani was initially thought to have been killed in a hijacking. Her husband and their taxi driver Zola Tongo escaped unharmed.

Tongo has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for his part in the death. His sentence was reduced from 25 years after he implicated the British businessman in the killing.

Mr Dewani, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, is living in a secure mental health hospital in Bristol where he is on bail.

He strenuously denies being gay or having anything to do with his wife’s death.

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Ugandan lesbian honoured for human rights work

Ugandan lesbian campaigner Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera has been honoured with an international award for her bravery in speaking out for human rights.

Ms Nabagesera, the founder of Freedom and Roam Uganda, is to received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

Award organisers commended her “rare courage” in a country which punishes homosexuality severely.

Ms Nabagesera has appeared on national television and radio to call for LGBT rights and an end to homophobia.

She has been physically attacked and has to move house regularly to escape harassment and threats to her life.

Last year, her name and photo were published by the notorious Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone, which campaigned for gay people to be hung.

The Martin Ennals Award is named after the British human rights activist who died in 1991. He was the Secretary-General of Amnesty International between 1968 and 1980.

A jury from ten human rights organisations, including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, selected Ms Nabagesera for the award. The honour is designed to publicise the recipient’s work and help protect them from the dangers they face.

The chairman of the award’s jury, Hans Thoolen, said Ms Nabagesera was “an exceptional woman of a rare courage, fighting under death threat for human dignity and the rights of homosexuals and marginalised people in Africa”.

Dipika Nath, an LGBT researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “This is a fitting tribute to the courage of one woman, Kasha Nabagesera, and to all activists working under conditions of extreme threat.”

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Video: Gay couple’s 61-year wait to marry

Haven’t they waited long enough?

New York residents Richard Adrian Dorr and John Mace have been together for 61 years but still cannot get married.

The couple, aged 83 and 91 respectively, could marry in a handful of other US states. But they insist they will not tie the knot until their home state grants equal marriage.

They are shown in a video released by gay rights group Freedom to Marry, which is stepping up its campaigns.

In the video, the couple reveal they met at the Juilliard School of Music in 1948 and have been together since 1950. Both are voice teachers who live and work in Manhattan.

Over the years, they have taught students including Bette Midler, Vanessa Regrave and the late Natasha Richardson.

Mr Dorr said: “We’ve thought about doing something up in Massachusetts or Connecticut, but we’ve always been New Yorkers… everything has been New York

“We’re New Yorkers and after 61 years of togetherness, we feel we have a right to be married in New York.”

Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, said: “Richard and John are the quintessential New York couple. They met at Juilliard and have spent most of their lives together here.

“They are still obviously so deeply in love after 61 years and yet after all those years of commitment, being there for one another through the ups and downs of life, they are still being denied the one thing they want most – the freedom to marry in New York. It is time to change that. After 61 years together, haven’t they waited long enough?”

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500 join Stonewall’s Equality Walk

A record 504 people joined gay charity Stonewall’s annual Equality Walk on Sunday.

Walkers raised £50,000 for the charity’s work and followed a route along the sea front and through Brighton’s gay village.

Participants included Coronation Street star Charlie Condou and Lip Service’s Heather Peac.
Laura Doughty, Stonewall’s deputy chief executive, said: “Stonewall’s work can make an even greater difference to the lives of all young people around the country, thanks to the success of this year’s Equality Walk.

“Money raised by our supporters at this walk will enable us to send an essential teacher training pack to every primary school in Britain, which will help them make their classes inclusive for children from all families.”

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Law firm loses clients over refusal to defend anti-gay marriage law

A US law firm has lost two high-profile clients over its refusal to defend the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act.

King & Spalding was seemingly lobbied by gay rights campaigners not to defend the law but has now lost the National Rifle Association and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli as clients.

After the Obama administration announced earlier this year that it would not defend the law against legal challenges, the Republican-controlled House said it would continue to do so.

The House hired King & Spalding last month and reports said the firm would earn $520 an hour – up to a cap of $500,000.

Then, chairman Robert D Hays said the firm had made a mistake in accepting the brief.

He told reporters that the mistake was his and added: “In reviewing this assignment further, I determined that the process used for vetting this engagement was inadequate.”

Partner Paul Clement, a former US Solicitor General, then resigned from the firm in protest, saying that lawyers should always complete representations.

Resigning, he wrote that regardless of his own views on the law, “a representation should not be abandoned because a client’s legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters”.

Mr Clement is to continue representing the House.

Last week, Mr Cuccinelli said the firm was guilty of an “obsequious act of weakness” in bowing to pressure from the gay rights lobby.

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association followed suit.

NRA general counsel David Lehman wrote to the firm: “We believe King & Spalding’s decision is indefensible and raises serious concerns about its ability to be a reliable and effective advocate for any client facing potentially controversial litigation.”

King & Spaulding has not commented on the client losses.

The firm has scored well in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index for the last four years and says it is committed to equality and “actively recruits LGBT law students”

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